COLUMN - It’s Been a Long Time Since Illini Fans Were Reminded of March Sadness
While it may be hard to fathom about an Illinois program that rightfully prides itself on its basketball history, the following statement is a fact.
There’s a 16-year-old diehard fan of the University of Illinois men’s basketball with his driving license today who has no concept of what goes into this particular feeling. ‘March Sadness’ had become a nearly extinct notion after the Illini had missed the NCAA tournament for each of the last eight years.
Right now even there’s young parents who have to call their moms and dads to remind themselves what it felt like when Illinois disappointedly took an unexpected nosedive in the NCAAs.
After an absence that was way too long, the second-round horror show that was Loyola Chicago’s 71-58 upset win over the top-seeded Illini Sunday brought out once again all these painful memories from the distant archives.
"It's one of the great things about March Madness is you have an off-day and you lose," Illinois head coach Brad Underwood said. "You can't lose sight of the Big Ten championship. You can't lose sight of the 19 games we won against Big Ten opponents. You can't lose sight of the growth that this team made through the season. I'll remember this very, very fondly, this group, as a team that really continued to take the next step in our progress of building."
And you know what? Underwood is correct. But today, while NCAA tournament games are still going on and Illinois is now not part of them any longer, sight of what this 2020-21 team accomplished might be hard to see.
Illinois Fighting Illini head coach Brad Underwood reacts to a play against the Loyola Ramblers during the second half in the second round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. The Loyola Ramblers won 71-58.
Trevor Ruszkowski/USA TODAY Sports
Sunday was truly a call your older sibling, parent or grandparent moment. Because otherwise you just don’t know.
The sad truth is this early exit from the 2021 NCAA tournament thanks to an inspired 8-seed Loyola squad and a flat in every way 1-seed Illinois team unable to rise to the occasion isn’t historic in any way.
Again, call somebody older in your family if you don’t know but the hurtful reality is this: Illinois historically underperforms in the NCAA tournament.
Since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985, Illinois has been selected to the NCAA Tournament 23 times. In 13 of those years, the Illini have been eliminated in a game where they were the higher seed.
llinois fans sit in the stands dejected after the teams loss to the Loyola (Il) Ramblers during the second round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament on Sunday, March 21, 2021, at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Ind.
Michael Caterina/IndyStar via USA TODAY Sports
The truly randomness, single-elimination event that is March Madness has a history of hitting this basketball program like a sack of flour straight to the gut.
Illinois is tied for the fourth-most NCAA Tournament appearances by a school without a national championship (trailing only Notre Dame, Texas and Temple) and third-most wins among teams yet to win a national championship, trailing only Oklahoma and Purdue.
Even for middle-aged Illini fans or those close to professional retirement, what the eight-year gap between NCAA tournament appearances did for Illini fans was allow them to forget how much they hated this empty feeling of knowing such an enjoyable season was done and now tainted thanks to the random nature of a 40-minute game involving 18 to 22-year-old athletes.
Oh, but ask any long-standing Illini fan and they’ll tell you there was a time when this experience was an annual occurrence. Let’s take a trip back in history, shall we?
The 1986-87 Illinois team had three future NBA players on its roster. They spent the entire season ranked in the top 15 of the Associated Press Top 25 poll. That team defeated the eventual national champions (Indiana) in the final home for Ken Norman and Doug Altenberger in Champaign. Just 11 days after that win over the Hoosiers, Norman and Altenberger would see their college careers end in an instant as a three seed in the NCAA tournament inside the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center in Alabama with a stunning 68-67 loss to Austin Peay in the first round.
The following year Illinois had an even more talented team. New arrivals Nick Anderson and Kenny Battle joined sophomore guards Kendall Gill and Stephen Bardo for a dynamic lineup that saw the 87-88 Illini get as high as 13th in the AP poll and once again were a three seed. This Illinois team beat Kansas in the Maui Invitational, had four straight games where they topped 100 points and hung 118 on Ohio State. However, in what local reporter/columnist/NBWA Hall of Fame nominee Loren Tate describes as one of the most disappointing upsets in Illini history, Illinois couldn’t make it out of the first weekend thanks to a 66-63 loss to an undermanned, 12-loss Villanova squad.
One year after the 1988-89 Final Four run, which ended with the obvious crushing loss to Michigan, Illinois bowed out in the first round as a victim of a 5-12 upset thanks to a scrappy Dayton Flyers squad marking the end of the college careers of Gill, Bardo, Marcus Liberty, and Ervin Small.
The last time Illinois was highly favored in a NCAA tournament game, which they were today, they were upset. Western Kentucky, a 12-seed, led wire-to-wire to defeat 5-seed Illinois 76-72 in Portland.
The following notable Illinois players have seen their college careers end in a NCAA tournament game where they were the higher seeded team: Dee Brown, Deon Thomas, Kendall Gill, Nick Anderson, Ken Norman, Eddie Johnson, Brian Cook, James Augustine, Sergio McClain, Kiwane Garris, Stephen Bardo and Doug Altenberger.
Illinois Fighting Illini guard Jacob Grandison (3) and guard Andre Curbelo (5) and guard Ayo Dosunmu (11) walk off the court after their loss to the Loyola Ramblers in the second round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. The Loyola Ramblers won 71-58.
Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports
These are not throwaway names folks. These are players who have their jersey number hung in the rafters of State Farm Center. And yes, among all his prestigious accolades, go ahead and add All-American Ayo Dosunmu to this list of Illinois players who should’ve seen their final seasons stretch a bit further in March.